It is the end of 2012 — I wish all of you a very super happy new year, a 2013 full of great health and prosperity.
Bye bye 2012…
2012 will be remembered as a very interesting and challenging year. But in restrospect, it was a good year — it could have been much better and much worst.
Below is my yearly recap (for 2012, mainly for documentation for myself, as I look back through out the years):
* After 4 years, left Motive (ALU) and re-entered the startup world. At Motive I helped bring to market a comprehensive customer care, and device management products and solutions for global telco operators. I am grateful for the time there, the great people that I met and work with, and what I learned, which was a lot with respect to the intersection of Products-Business-Dev-Go-to-Market and the world of Telco;
* The first part of 2012 was a bit tough, but survived it (welcome to the startup world!). What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. While not for everyone, there is no other environment that keeps you on the edge, regardless of age, as working-on and/or running a (high-tech) startup business;
* Spent a number of months working on mobile apps where I helped deliver the Starbucks app for Android and the VolunteerSpot app for iPad, and other — I met and worked with great folks and customers, including my friends and partners at Appficient – thank you all;
* I spent time teaching (to around 12 students) Android Programming at the Austin Community College using as source the Android in Action 3rd edition book that I co-authored in 2011;
* With Steve Guengerich and the Austin community, continued the effort of updating the Austin Mobile Scene mind map;
* Wrote a couple of popular tech articles including Parse cloud-based services for Android apps and Introduction to jQuery Mobile;
* Created the content on Mobile Development for Socratic Art‘s XTOL (Experiential Teaching On Line) — on line masters degree programs that will be offered by well known universities.
* Co-founded with other Austinites the Austin Awesome Foundation. This is an awesome group of people with an awesome purpose. During 2012 we gave grants to 9 awesome people or group of people from educators, to engineers and artists who are all making a difference in Austin;
* It was a good year for Mobile Monday Austin. This is an all volunteer-run organization. Today we have close to 500 registered members. Many thanks to Carlo Longino and the rest of the organizers and members-participants, and many thanks to our Sponsors! We had a great App Showcase at the Texas Wireless Summit, great socials and events. As part of our evolution, in 2012 we founded the Austin Mobile Community LLC, a legal entity to help grow, protect its Directors, and run MoMo Austin and Android Dev Austin and other. The goal remains the same: bringing together mobile practitioners, academia and aficionados and help promote mobility and related research and businesses in Austin;
* Had a couple of speaking engagements including Google I/O Extended, InnoTech, SXSW Interactive, other;
* Ended the year by joining Shango. Around 4-months ago I joined Shango and its management team. I am having a blast at Shango, helping take the Austin startup to next level; I’m very excited about the opportunity, the potential and the people I work with. At Shango, with its cloud services brokerage platform, we are changing how communication service providers buy, sell and manage IP services;
* And last but not least, the world didn’t end on my birthday Dec 21 2012, as the Mayan calendar end-of-days lunatics, I mean, interpreters, predicted.
None of the above wouldn’t have been possible without the support of my lovely wife, family and friends — thank you, I owe you all, I love you all.
Hello 2013!!!
To all, best wishes — have a wonderful 2013.
ceo